Mel Gibson gets angry and even with the kidnappers of his young son in Ron Howard's slick thriller "Ransom", now out on a DVD with some tightly produced extra features.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture The picture quality on this disc is reasonable, but not as pristine as you might expect for such a relatively new film.

Sound There's plenty of bass available to a 5.1 mix that's always working to increase the menace of the movie.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary Ron Howard doesn't leave a stone unturned in detailing the development of the film from script re-writes to production. One little fact that may surprise many is that he used to sit next to Rene Russo in class at high school. She dropped out much to her eternal regret, but Howard reckons she's done well for herself despite that.

Deleted Scenes
Delroy Lindo fans will want to take a look at these four finished scenes as he figures heavily in them. They do add further facets to his character in the movie, and a brief commentary would have been handy to explain why they were dropped.

What would you do?
Funnily enough this featurette doesn't feature interviews with yourself on what you would do in such a situation, but rather is a 'making of' featurette. Howard had never made a crime drama before and here explains what he feels you need to make a film of this type work. One burning question he fails to address is whether his noggin is permanently welded into a baseball cap.

Additional Extra Features
A 'Between Takes' reel of the cast goofing about, and the international theatrical trailer.